Julie Dickson

Fellow & Tutor in Law; Professor of Legal Philosophy

Julie Dickson (LLB, Dip. L.P. Glasgow; MA, DPhil Oxf.) is Professor of Legal Philosophy in the Faculty of Law, and Fellow and Senior Law Tutor at Somerville College. After completing an undergraduate law degree at the University of Glasgow in her native Scotland, and a D. Phil in Philosophy of Law at Balliol College, Oxford, she held lectureships at the University of Leicester and University College London before taking up a Fellowship in Law at Somerville College in 2002.

Professor Dickson works mainly in general jurisprudence or philosophy of law, and especially on methodological issues, and her publications on this topic include her books, Evaluation and Legal Theory (2001):  Evaluation and Legal Theory: : Legal Theory Today Julie Dickson Hart Publishing (bloomsbury.com) and Elucidating Law (2022): Elucidating Law – Julie Dickson – Oxford University Press (oup.com) She is also interested in theoretical aspects of transnational law, especially European Union Law, including the theory of legal systems in the EU context. In 2012, together with her colleague Professor Pavlos Eleftheriadis, she co-edited and contributed to a volume presenting some of the best contemporary work combining legal and political philosophy and European Union law: 

Philosophical Foundations of European Union Law – Julie Dickson, Pavlos Eleftheriadis – Oxford University Press (oup.com)

Professor Dickson teaches Jurisprudence and European Union Law at both undergraduate and postgraduate levels, and has been the recipient of a University of Oxford teaching excellence award and nominated for an “Outstanding Tutor” award in the student-led Oxford Students Union teaching awards. She serves on the editorial board of several journals, including Legal TheoryLaw and PhilosophyTransnational Legal Theory, the Oxford Journal of Legal Studies and Problema, and was the Review Articles editor of the Oxford Journal of Legal Studies from 2003-2016.

Professor Dickson’s latest book on the methodology of Legal Philosophy, Elucidating Law, has recently been published by Oxford University Press: Elucidating Law – Julie Dickson – Oxford University Press (oup.com)  She is now working on a short book on the possibility and potential of content-independence in law (under contract with Cambridge University Press). She is also a keen amateur photographer with a particular interest in wildlife photography.

See also the interview on the Jurisprudence in Oxford subject page: https://www.law.ox.ac.uk/research-and-subject-groups/jurisprudence-oxford/julie-dickson


Publications

J Dickson, Elucidating Law (Oxford University Press 2022)

J Dickson, ‘Methodology in Legal Philosophy’ in Mathieu Carpentier (ed), Meta-theory of Law (ISTE Ltd 2022)

J Dickson, ‘Descriptive Legal Theory’ in M Sellers & S Kirste (ed), Encyclopaedia of the Philosophy of Law and Social Philosophy (Springer 2019)

J Dickson, ‘Does It Matter Where We Start?: Some Remarks on Some Remarks by John Gardner on the Methodology of Legal Philosophy’ (2019) 19 Jerusalem Review of Legal Studies 71

J Dickson, ‘Why General Jurisprudence is Interesting’ (2017) 49 Crítica 11

‘Estado del arte de la filosofía del derecho’ / ‘State of the Art in Legal Philosophy’ (2016) Problema (UNAM Press, México, D.F.). J.Dickson

Ours is a Broad Church: Indirectly Evaluative Legal Philosophy as a Facet of Jurisprudential Inquiry’ (2015) 6 Jurisprudence 207. J. Dickson

‘Who’s Afraid of Transnational Legal Theory?: Dangers and Desiderata ‘ (2015) Transnational Legal Theory, J. Dickson

‘Law and Its Theory: a Question of Priorities’ in R P George and J Keown (eds), Reason, Morality and Law: the Jurisprudence of John Finnis (Oxford University Press 2013) J. Dickson

‘Introduction: The Puzzles of European Union Law’ in J Dickson & P Eleftheriadis (eds), Philosophical Foundations of European Union Law (Oxford University Press 2012), J. Dickson and P. Eleftheriaidis

‘Legal Positivism: Contemporary Debates’ in Andrei Marmor (ed), The Routledge Companion to Philosophy of Law (Routledge 2012), J. Dickson

‘The Idea of a Legal System: Between the Real and the Ideal’ in N Walker (ed), MacCormick’s Scotland (Edinburgh University Press 2012), J. Dickson

‘Towards a Theory of European Union Legal Systems’ in J Dickson & P Eleftheriadis (eds), Philosophical Foundations of European Union Law (Oxford University Press 2012), J. Dickson

‘Directives in European Union Legal Systems: Whose Norms Are They Anyway?’ (2011) 17 European Law Journal 190, J. Dickson

‘On Naturalizing Jurisprudence: Some Comments on Brian Leiter’s View of What Jurisprudence Should Become ‘ (2011) 30 Law and Philosophy 477, J. Dickson

‘Is Bad Law Still Law? Is Bad Law Really Law?’ in Maksymilian Del Mar and Zenon Bankowski (eds), Law as Institutional Normative Order (Ashgate 2009), J. Dickson

‘How Many Legal Systems? Some Puzzles Regarding the Identity Conditions of, and Relations Between, Legal Systems in the European Union’ (2008) 2 Problema 9, J. Dickson

‘Is the Rule of Recognition Really a Conventional Rule?’ (2007) 27(3) Oxford Journal of Legal Studies 373, J. Dickson

‘Descriptive Legal Theory’ (2006) IVR Encyclopaedia of Jurisprudence, Legal Theory and Philosophy of Law, J. Dickson

Evaluación en la teoría del derecho (Spanish language edition of Evaluation and Legal Theory, UNAM Press, México, D.F. 2006), J. Dickson

‘Interpreting Normativity’ in Properties of Law: Essays in Honour of Jim Harris (OUP 2006), J. Dickson

‘Methodology in Jurisprudence: a critical survey’ (2004) 10(3) Legal Theory 117, J. Dickson

‘The Central Questions of Legal’ (2003) 56 Current Legal Problems 63, J. Dickson

Evaluation and Legal Theory (Hart Publishing 2001), J. Dickson

‘Interpretation and Coherence in Legal Reasoning’ (2001) (Fall 2001 Edition, revised June 2005 and September 2009) The Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy (ed. – E. Zalta), J. Dickson

‘Legal Positivism and Moral Scepticism: An Unholy Alliance?’ (1999) 28 Anglo-American Law Review 243, J. Dickson


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